Independent
scientists have confirmed that Gulf marine life is heavily contaminated
by the dispersed oil and oil sheen in the water. [Photo: Erika
Blumenfeld]

Despite BP having capped its well in the Gulf of Mexico in July, the health-related after-effects of the disaster subsist.

Gulf Coast
residents and BP cleanup workers have linked the source of
certain illnesses to chemicals present in BP's oil and the toxic
dispersants used to sink it - illnesses that appear to be both spreading
and worsening.

Dr. Rodney Soto, a medical doctor in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, has
been testing and treating patients with high levels of oil-related
chemicals in their blood stream. These are commonly referred to as
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC's). Anthropogenic VOC's from BP's oil
disaster are toxic and have negative chronic health effects.

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Dr. Soto is finding disconcertingly consistent and high levels of toxic chemicals in every one of the patients he is testing.

"I'm regularly finding between five and seven VOCs in my patients,"
Dr. Soto told Al Jazeera. "These patients include people not directly
involved in the oil clean-up, as well as residents that do not live
right on the coast. These are clearly related to the oil disaster."

Chronic health effects

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Lloyd Pearcey, from Bonsecour, Alabama, worked on a BP clean-up team as a foreman for four months.

During that time, he collected oil-soaked boom and drove a bulldozer
"filled with the tar balls and tar mats we collected. Other times we
stood in the water in Tyvek suits putting out shore boom with oil all
over us. The fumes got to you."

"I just got my results from the blood tests," Pearcey told Al
Jazeera, "I have the chemicals of the oil and dispersants in my blood."

Pearcey had experienced many of the now common symptoms of acute exposure to BP's chemicals. (article continued at Al Jazeera HERE.)

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